READING IMPROVEMENT

Reading improvement consists of two areas. (a) One is the speed at which something is read and (b) Comprehension on what has been read. One is no good without the other so reading improvement can be defined as the process of increasing (a) or (b) but preferably (a) and (b).

There may be many factors which govern the rate at which a person can improve on their reading.

• The very basic problem is that the person is not conversant with the alphabet nor its pronunciation under different conditions. This is the first problem faced by all people using another language than their native tongue.

• For those who know the alphabet, the subject matter is the first consideration. The first stumbling block will be the person's vocabulary. If they have no knowledge of the subject they will have to be able to comprehend what they are reading by absorbing and correlating the information ingested.

• Subject matter - if there is no interest in the matter or its is too technical then the mind will either stop processing or wander and comprehension will suffer until they reach the stage they cannot recall or describe what they have read.

• Concentration - loss of concentration can occur even if there is interest in the subject because of external forces e.g. noise (people talking, radio, television, (loud) music)